Brothers Ernest and Clement Russell were some of the very first Conscientious Objectors to go before a Tribunal anywhere in the country. Both single men in their 20's and members of the Isleworth Quaker community, they may well have been eager to argue their case - and the Twickenham Tribunal obliged, hearing Ernest's application for exemption on the 28th of February 1916, weeks before most Tribunals would even be set up! Clement's Tribunal was less than a week later on the 3rd of March, and both received a very unusual verdict; Absolute Exemption. This decision, handed down in both cases by the same Tribunal board, would have allowed them to return to their homes and jobs, completely exempt from any attempt to force them into military service. This Absolute Exemption status was vanishingly rare, but under the Military Service Act, all Conscientious Objectors were entitled to it. Unfortunately for both Ernest and Clement, it appears that the Twickenham Tribunal quickly had a change of heart and reviewed their cases, downgrading their Absolute Exemption to "Exempt from Combatant Service Only" (ECS). ECS meant that both men could still be forced into the army, albeit in a specialist Non-Combatant Corps, where they would provide logistical and labour support for the military without taking up arms. Fortunately for COs dissatisfied with their local Tribunal verdicts, there was an appeal system in place at the county level. Both men applied to the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal in order to have their exemption reinstated unsuccessfully. Instead their ECS was qualified by granting them permission to work with the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), a Quaker medical service working behind the lines on the front, and at home in the UK. Clement and Ernest took up FAU work in June and August respectively, and they continued with the FAU until February 1919. While this medical work was far from the Absolute Exemption they had originally been granted, it allowed both men to work to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by war and make a powerful statement for constructive peace work in the midst of conflict.

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